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Kiryu is back on Nintendo Switch 2, with Yakuza Kiwami 2 – a remake of the second installment in Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s famed and celebrated series. This is a port, and arrives eight years after Kiwami 2 first launched in Japan on the PS4.

Review info

Platform reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2
Available on: PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, PC
Release date: November 13, 2025 (Switch 2)

This game is a direct follow-up to the events of Yakuza Kiwami, and continues the story of ex-Yakuza Kazuma Kiryu. Without spoiling too much, the game follows Kiryu’s journey to find a new chairman for his former employer, the Tojo Clan, and prevent an all-out war between the Clan and its rival, the Omi Alliance. It’s a very strong follow-up, and the tension running throughout the narrative really sucked me in – I could barely put Kiwami 2 down.

But how does the Nintendo Switch 2 port hold up? Is this a good way to play the game? After spending hours brawling through Kiwami 2 on Nintendo’s latest hardware, I’ve got a few thoughts, so let’s dive in.

A visual upgrade that comes at a cost

(Image credit: Sega)

Before I talk about the game itself, I want to discuss the quality and performance of Kiwami 2’s Switch 2 port.

Visually, this hits the sort of levels you’d expect. It runs at 1080p, as I also experienced when playing it on PS4. Character models and environments are replicated well on Switch 2, although of course, they do show their age. Still, this is a flashier looking game than Yakuza Kiwami, largely due to its development on the more advanced Dragon Engine. The intricacies of clothing, character expressions, and lighting of shops look more detailed and shiny in this entry.

But with the more advanced visuals and effects comes a price. Yes, Yakuza Kiwami 2 only runs at 30fps. And given that I’d played Yakuza Kiwami right before this – a game that runs comfortably at 60fps on Switch 2 – that drop down was all too obvious.

As understandable as it is, this does mean that movement and navigation lacks the fluidity you’d experience with Kiwami or even Yakuza 0 Director’s Cut.

Best bit

(Image credit: Sega)

Fairly early on you get to battle it out against The Dragon of Kansai, and it's truly epic. He's got a ton of health, so you have to carefully block and dodge, then strike when there's an opening. There are also weapons hidden in the bushes which you can use to really batter him. It's a face-off that prepares you for the tougher one-on-ones that lie ahead, and was super satisfying when I landed the finishing blow.

Also, there are unfortunately a few frame drops to contest with, as was the case on PS4. When walking through busy parts of Kamurocho or entering into high-octane sequences, I noticed a few dips, which could be pretty frustrating. This is the case in docked or handheld mode.

Is performance bad? No – it’s about on-par with what the PS4 could plate up, and frame drops never made combat feel more challenging than it should do, crucially. But if you’re expecting the smooth 60fps gameplay of the recently released PS5 version, you’re going to be disappointed.

All in all, this port is decent. You get to enjoy Kiwami 2 on the go, and that in itself is a major positive. Sure, it’s not the definitive way to play, but if you’re looking for portability over top-tier performance, this is still a worthwhile way to play. Oh, and for those wondering, the green filter is still alive and kicking on Switch 2.

Two Dragons

(Image credit: Sega)

So, the Switch 2 edition of Yakuza Kiwami 2 is solid overall, but how about the game itself?

I’ll put my cards on the table – I had an absolute blast with Kiwami 2. First of all, the story is kept tight and is gripping from start to finish. The narrative is paced fantastically well, and the cast of characters is excellent once more. This time around, there’s a ‘big bad’ who you’re introduced to right from the off, Ryuji Goda. He refers to himself as The Dragon of Kansai, and serves as the ultimate rival to Kiryu – himself known as The Dragon of Dojima.

There are plenty of twists and turns to navigate, and there’s a brief set of chapters where you can play as the sadomasochistic Goro Majima, which are pretty entertaining. Of course, there are plenty of whacky substories to complete too, running from claw machine antics through to defeating a band of men dressed up in diapers.

Anyway…something I really appreciated about Kiwami 2 – coming straight off playing the first Kiwami game – was the streamlined nature of its gameplay. There’s a technical side to that, like the lack of loading screens when Kiryu walks into restaurants or other buildings, for example. But also, I liked how the multitude of combat styles were substituted for a more singular approach to battle.

In Kiwami, you had to learn skills for specific styles, whereas now, every ability you learn is available to you through a unified Dragon style. Personally, I prefer this more centralised approach – being able to use all of my flashy new moves without having to change into a different mode is a significant upgrade. Some may miss the variety of unique styles, but luckily, I’m not ‘some’!

More generally, combat is awesome. It’s simplistic yet rewarding, and piecing together killer combos on seriously beefy bosses feels exhilarating. Heat actions also let you crush your foes in style, and you’ll unlock more of these as you progress, making it genuinely feel as if Kiryu grows in strength as the story unfolds.

Before I wrap up, I also want to pay kudos to the excellent, electrifying soundtrack that runs throughout this game. I love the music in Yakuza games, and it sounds as good as ever in Kiwami 2. Japanese voice acting is also superb, and the mid-2000s setting is captured beautifully, with background music, murmuring passers-by, and the sound of pouring rain creating an incredibly immersive atmosphere.

All in all, Yakuza Kiwami 2 is a great game, and a must-play for any fans of the Yakuza series on Switch 2. Sure, its drop down to a targeted 30fps can feel jarring at times, and I did pick up on a few frame drops, but visually it’s still enticing, and when you combine that with addictive combat and a top-notch story, there’s just so much to like.

Should you play Yakuza Kiwami 2 on Nintendo Switch 2?

(Image credit: Sega)Play it if...

You want to play Yakuza on the move
It may seem obvious, but the real beauty of this port is that it lets you take Yakuza on the go, and enjoy the whacky world and engaging story no matter where you are. The game runs admirably in handheld mode too, so it’s a tempting way to play.

You’re a fan of high-octane combat
The action-packed combat of Yakuza Kiwami 2 is incredibly addictive. There are some seriously epic boss fights where perfectly timed dodges and finishing blows feel oh-so satisfying, and even getting into street brawls never gets old.

Don't play it if...

You’ve got a PS5
Kiwami 2 targets 30fps on the Switch 2, and some occasional frame drops can cause frustration when exploring busier areas. However, the recently released PS5 version of the game runs at 60fps, making for a smoother and more seamless way to experience the game.

You’ve not played other games in the series
Although there’s a recap sequence at the beginning of the game, I would strongly recommend playing Yakuza Kiwami before you get into this one. And although some may disagree, I think playing Yakuza 0 before both of these is the optimal way to go – you’ll get the full backstory of Kiryu and Majima, which adds considerable depth.

Accessibility features

As was the case on Yakuza Kiwami, there are a few useful customization options available in the settings menu. For instance, you can change camera controls, enable subtitles in a wide range of languages, and alter difficulty as well as blood levels. There’s also an option to toggle display tips on or off. Unfortunately, there are no colorblind modes, though.

How I reviewed Yakuza Kiwami 2 on Nintendo Switch 2

(Image credit: Sega)

I clocked more than 15 hours of playtime on Yakuza Kiwami 2. During this time, I completed a handful of substories and minigames, but mainly focused on the main story. I spent most of my time playing in handheld mode on Nintendo Switch 2, sometimes enjoying game audio with my Sony WH-1000XM6 headphones. However, I also tried the game out in docked mode, with my console connected to the Sky Glass Gen 2 TV and Marshall Heston 120 soundbar.

Before taking on this title, I played through Yakuza Kiwami on Nintendo Switch 2, but I’m generally a big fan of the Yakuza series, with 0 standing as my favorite entry in the franchise.

More generally, I’ve been a Nintendo Switch 2 owner from launch, and have reviewed a wide range of games for the console. This includes other RPGs like Dragon Quest 1 & 2 HD-2D Remake and Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army, but also titles from other genres, like Kirby Air Riders and Drag x Drive.

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As a retro console, the Atari 2600+ is a strong example of how to do things right. The fact that it allows you to use cartridges rather than pre-loaded ROMs not only allows you to pick up rereleased games for it but also gives your classic Atari 2600 cartridges a new lease of life. And despite its few missteps, the Atari 2600+ Pac-Man Edition builds from this strong base.

In our original Atari 2600+ review, we described how the retro console was a ‘loving recreation of the original hardware’ and that’s very much the case with the Pac-Man Edition. The main differences? It now comes with a wireless CX40+ joystick, rather than the awkward wired one we criticised in our original review. Oh yeah, and every inch of it is covered in Pac-Man styling.

Honestly, if you’re of a certain age – which I am – and prone to nostalgia – no doy – you’ll likely be charmed by this console. From the yellow color that references the puck-shaped protagonist’s hue to the light-up image of him being chased by his ghostly foes on its front, this edition wears its affiliations on its sleeve. And, as a game, Pac-Man is every bit the classic you remember – even if the original 2600 port that’s also included is a bit of a bust.

Atari 2600+ Pac-Man Edition review: price & availability

(Image credit: Future)

Given the game's ghostly antagonists, it’s pretty apt that the Atari 2600+ Pac-Man Edition was released on October 31, 2025. You can buy it for a list price of $169.99 / £129.99 / AU$260.99, which feels pretty decent value to me.

Yes, retro consoles like the SNES Mini or PlayStation Classic were cheaper at $79.99 / £69.99 / AU$119.95 and $99.99 / £89.99 / AU$149.99, respectively, but they were glorified emulators in an attractive package. Although it’s technically still using emulation, the Atari 2600+ runs off cartridges rather than ROMs and is backwards compatible with the original cartridges, making it far more flexible than these consoles.

I’m less convinced by the pricing of its games, though. New cartridges retail for $29.99 / £24.99 / around AU$50.48 each. This feels like a fair price for some original retro game cartridges perhaps – after all, they have an innate collector’s value that re-released games don’t.

But I’ve bought recent AAA games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 for this kind of money, which does force me to ask whether they’re really equivalent in terms of the new labour that’s gone into them. Charging modern market prices for ports of decades-old games feels like it's becoming a bit of a trend these days, and it's not one I'm totally comfortable with.

Atari 2600+ Pac-Man Edition review: design

(Image credit: Future)

I’ve gotta hand it to Atari: it knows how to pull all of the little levers and buttons in my soul to get my nostalgia flowing. The look of the Atari 2600+ is delightfully retro – it's redolent of those 6am Saturday mornings where my brothers and I would sneak downstairs early to play luridly colored, blocky pixel worlds like Pitfall! and Frogger.

The Atari 2600+ maintains so many of the details that made the original iconic. Toggles still run along its top edge, triggering everything from power and reset functions to switching between color and black & white and setting player difficulty on either side. Atari has resisted the temptation to tidy up – even little details like the way the cartridge awkwardly juts out have been kept exactly as you remember them, which is definitely to Atari’s credit.

But, naturally, given this is a Pac-Man special edition, not quite everything is as you remember it. First off, there’s that bright yellow colorway, which is 100% on-brand for anything involving the pill-necking ghost chomper. Additionally, the 2600’s usual front wood veneer has been replaced with a light-up panel showing Pac-Man in flight from the game’s spectral antagonists – I love these little details, and they show a real thoughtfulness to Atari’s design process here.

(Image credit: Future)

Rather than the CX40 joystick that was packaged up with the standard Atari 2600+, the CX40+ included here comes with a few upgrades. Most materially, the wired connection we criticized in our original review because of its awkward connection to the back of the console has been exorcized here, replaced with much superior wireless dongle connectivity.

Aesthetically, it has also had a glow-up, adorned with the same banana yellow colorway and a cute Pac-Man symbol on top of the stick. My only grumble here is that Atari didn’t send me any of the Ghost Edition CX40+ optional accessories they sell, which are similarly branded with the colors and likeness of Blinky, Inky, Pinky, and Clyde and are objectively adorable. Come on, guys: it’s like you’re actively trying to trigger my FOMO.

Sadly, one thing hasn’t changed about the CX40+, though: it’s still as uncomfortably stiff to use as when we reviewed the standard 2600+. Trying to be as charitable as possible to Atari – and looking back on my vague childhood memories through the increasingly frosted windows of middle age – I do actually think this is an accurate recreation of how the original joysticks used to handle. I suspect, though, that this faithfulness won’t make its turgid handling more forgiving in the eyes of modern gamers.

Atari 2600+ Pac-Man Edition review: performance

(Image credit: Future)

Firing up Pac-Man 7800 triggered almost primal memories in me. Playing the game takes me right back to my childhood, feeding coin after coin into an arcade slot to spend a little longer running round its dark mazes and gobbling up pixelated fruit. It’s a heady nostalgic hit.

However, I will admit that this joy is slightly undermined by how much duller my reflexes are some 35 years hence. Coupled with the stiffness of the CX40+’s stick, I found myself dying with an almost lemming-like alacrity. I’ve improved somewhat over my time testing it, partly as a result of learning to anticipate upcoming turns and move the stick way before I hit the bend, but I’m still bad at it. Honestly, Pac-Man and I have a slightly toxic relationship: I love it, and it clearly hates me.

Even when you take away the nostalgia, though, the gameplay is still as addictive and frustrating to a newcomer. My partner is hardly a committed gamer, but she quickly found herself hooked by the addictive ‘just one more turn’ gameplay loop. There were points she’d be enraged at how pointlessly she’d died – and then she’d fire it up again regardless, which is about as firm an endorsement as she can offer.

(Image credit: Future)

Unfortunately, while this is nominally a twin-game pack, I can’t really say the same for Pac-Man 2600. Within seconds of booting it up, I could see why it’s always been such a controversial port. In almost every regard, it sits in the original Pac-Man’s shadow

To adapt the arcade hit to the more modest hardware of the Atari 2600, the graphics were devolved considerably. Power pills are now squares, and Pac-Man looks like he’s lost all enthusiasm for his work. Worse, the ghosts flicker and regularly overlap, making it hard to know when some of them might decide to peel off, while I could honestly never tell when a power pill had worn off, as their appearance was almost indistinguishable either way.

Fundamentally, Pac-Man 2600 might be a nice game to have in your collection. But it’s more of a curiosity, fun to revisit in the same way that archive footage of the Nintendo Virtual Boy or Sinclair C5 is amusing. I recommend you play it, even if I think 95% of the time you’ll go straight to the more loyal port of Pac-Man 7800.

Fortunately, you’re not limited to playing either – as the console is fully backward compatible, you can play any old Atari games you still have or start building your own retro collection from scratch. This is the real strength of the Atari 2600+ for me: so many retro gaming devices force you to make do with a limited catalogue or skirt into ethically murky territory. The Atari 2600+ makes it far easier to start getting into retro gaming, without having to fuss about buying 30-year-old CRTs from eBay.

Should I buy the Atari 2600+ Pac-Man Edition?

(Image credit: Future)Buy it if...

You’ve got serious Atari nostalgia
If you’re wanting to get into Atari retro gaming, this is one of the best ways to do it. Not only can you pick up re-released games, but it’ll run any of those old Atari cartridges you have in the attic.

You love Pac-Man
Alright… this one’s pretty obvious. But if you loved Pac-Man back in the day and are charmed by this console’s styling, then you’ll want to opt for this over the 2600+ standard edition.

Don't buy it if...

You want cheap retro games
Atari’s rereleased games are not cheap, costing $29.99 / £24.99 per cartridge. Second-hand OG cartridges can be more affordable, although this naturally varies with rarity – typical prices may range from $5 / £5 to $70 / £30.

You don’t like a stiff joystick
Compared to modern, responsive Hall-effect thumbsticks, the CX40+ is stiffer than an 18-year single malt. That’s probably true to the original design, but you might find it requires more force than you’re used to.

How I tested the Atari 2600+ Pac-Man Edition

(Image credit: Future)

I tested the Atari 2600+ over the course of several days, both hooking it up to my 65-inch TCL C8K and a 24-inch LG TQ520S-P monitor.

I played both Pac-Man 7800 and Pac-Man 2600, trying out as many of the different game settings as possible, including different difficulty levels and speed modes.

• First reviewed: December 2025
• Read more about how we test

Atari’s Pac-Man-themed retro console has me reliving childhood memories all over again and returned me to a simpler, pixelated past.

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Final Audio DX3000CL: Two-minute review

The DX3000CL are, in the least pejorative way, a very Final Audio product. There’s nothing flashy about the way they’re designed, there’s nothing remarkable about the way they’re specified (although the provision for both balanced and unbalanced cable terminations is something some alternative brands might want to take notice of), and there’s nothing unusual about the way they look (apart from the fact they’re a little wider on the head than most alternatives).

All of the effort that’s gone into them seems to have been concentrated on the way they perform, and that can only be a good thing as a means to enter our best wired headphones guide.

The quality of build and finish is well up to standard, don’t get me wrong, and they’re as comfortable to wear as any price-comparable rival and quite a lot more comfortable than some. But it’s the 40mm free-edge dynamic driver, and its paper/carbon composite diaphragm, that’s the real star of the show here.

All the relevant numbers (frequency response, sensitivity, impedance) are very promising – but that’s nothing when you consider the way the DX3000CL actually sound. At this money they’re up against some extremely credible competition – the open-backed Sennheiser HD 660 S2 are an obvious alternative, and the planar magnetic FiiO FT5 are no slouches either, but the Final Audio have some very specific tricks up their sleeve.

They’re not the most dynamic or engaging listen, it’s true – but if you value insight, eloquence and a soundstage so large you feel you could walk around it, the DX3000CL will keep you listening for the foreseeable future.

Yes, the case is huge (Image credit: Future)Final Audio DX3000CL review: Price & release date

• 13th November 2025
• Priced $599 / £549 / AU$1099

As briefly mentioned above, at $599 / £549 / AU$1099, these Final cans are up against some serious competition – I might mention the open-backed Sennheiser HD-660 S2 as a go-to alternative, or the planar magnetic FiiO FT5, but again, the Final Audio headphones do have some (very specific) aces up their sleeve.

(Image credit: Future)Final Audio DX3000CL review: Specs

Type

Wired closed-back over-ear

Drivers

40mm paper/carbon composite

Weight

410g

Cable length

2m

Sensitivity

96dB/wm

Impedance

37Ω

Termination

4.4mm (with 6.3mm adapter)

Housing: glass fibre-reinforced resin

Glass fibre-reinforced resin

(Image credit: Future)Final Audio DX3000CL review: Features

• 40mm paper/carbon composite dynamic drivers
• 96dB/wm sensitivity / 37Ω impedance
• 3: 2m OFC cable with 4.4mm termination

To be honest, I’m not quite sure how any pair of passive wired over-ear headphones could score less than ‘5’ for ‘features’. After all, products like this require very few features – and if the necessary features are present and correct, then ‘5’ is basically mandatory. And there’s no denying the Final Audio DX3000CL have the necessary features.

The headphones are supplied with a two-metre length of relatively hefty oxygen-free copper cable in a nicely flexible polymer sheath. At one end it splits into two 3.5mm terminations, as each ear cup must be wired. At the other there’s a 4.4mm balanced connection, and there’s also a rather over-engineered 6.3mm adapter included too.

The cable supplies audio information to a pair of 40mm dynamic drivers. They’re a free-edge design, made from a paper-and-carbon composite – they’re good for a claimed frequency response of 10Hz - 40kHz, and are fully designed and assembled in-house by Final Audio in Japan.

Sensitivity of 96dB/wm and 37Ω impedance means the DX3000CL aren’t especially tricky to drive, and no reasonably powered headphone amplifier will have to break a sweat in order to get worthwhile volume out of them.

• Features score: 5/5

(Image credit: Future)Final Audio DX3000CL review: Sound quality

• Remarkable powers of insight and detail retrieval
• Big, organised and explicit soundstaging
• Could conceivably sound more engaged and engaging

If you’re prepared to concede that you can’t have everything, even from an expensive pair of headphones, then the Final Audio DX3000CL are in many ways a deeply accomplished listen. As long as you don’t want to be grabbed by the lapels, the sound they make has plenty to recommend it.

Where they score very heavily is in the level of insight they summon, their ability to retrieve, reveal and contextualise even the most minor, most fleeting, most transient details in a recording and give them precisely the right amount of weighting. If it’s there in a mix, no matter how far back or how far down, the Final Audio will seize on it and let you know all about it. And the fact that they can generate a large, spacious and carefully organised soundstage doesn’t do any harm in this respect, either.

Do you remember when Scarlett Johansson collaborated with David Bowie on her album of Tom Waits cover versions? That was a weird old time, wasn’t it? Their version of Falling Down can sound quite foggy and indistinct, but when the Final Audio get hold of it all is revealed. The recording is opened up, with every element individualised and distinct in its own little pocket of space – but without sounding remote or dislocated. There’s still unity to the way the song is presented, but it’s a bit like the view from a freshly washed window – everything comes more fully into focus.

(Image credit: Future)

It doesn’t do any harm that the tonality of the DX3000CL is so neutral and naturalistic, and the fact that the journey from the (deep and solid) low frequencies to the (crisply substantial) top end is so smooth and uneventful. They’re deftly punchy without ever threatening to get out of hand, and the balance they strike in these respects is judicious in the extreme.

Where the Final Audio disappoint just a little centers around dynamics and overall engagement. There’s a suggestion of self-conscious good taste about the way these headphones are voiced that means they don’t always attack a recording with as much determination as might be appropriate, and they’re reluctant to properly let loose when the levels of intensity or simple volume in a recording begin to ramp up.

In the case of the Scarlett Johansson tune it’s not that much of an issue, but when you switch to something like Fanfare for the Warriors by The Art Ensemble of Chicago it becomes all too apparent that the DX3000CL are capable of being altogether too polite. ‘Wild abandon’ isn’t the be-all and end-all when it comes to reproducing music, of course, but a pair of headphones needs to be able to cut loose every now and then…

• Sound quality score: 4/5

(Image credit: Future)Final Audio DX3000CL review: Design

• Glass fibre-reinforced resin housing
• Screws and ‘O’ rings allow for easy servicing
• 410g (without cable)

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, of course, but for my money there’s an elegant simplicity about the design of the DX3000CL that isn’t always easy to come by. Final Audio has resisted the temptation to try to fancify these headphones, and the result is a clean and understated look.

This relative sophistication is thanks, in large part, to judicious choice of and use of materials. The single slender length of steel that adjusts the position of the headband relative to the ear cups looks and feels good – and unusually, it allows the ear cups to move in order to achieve adjustment rather than the other way around. The ear cups themselves are made of resin reinforced with glass fibre, and the hint of capillary waves in the housing constitutes perhaps the only design flourish here.

The ear pads and the headband feature memory foam covered with synthetic leather. There’s plenty of it for the ear pads, too, which makes the DX3000CL rather wider than most of their nominal rivals – you’ll have to be OK with looking a bit like a Cyberman when wearing these headphones. They’re comfortable, though, and are not as keen to retain and return your body heat than some alternatives I could mention. 410g is a fairly considerable weight, especially when you consider that’s without the cable being attached – but the clamping force and the hanger arrangement are both so carefully judged that the Final Audio don’t feel in any way burdensome, even if you’ve been wearing them for hours.

The fact the cable clicks into the front of the lower portion of each ear cup is slightly disconcerting (although it makes no practical difference). I’m so used to wired headphones connecting at the very bottom, or at the rear of the lower portion of the ear cup, I find myself checking that I haven’t got the headphones on backwards. That might just be me, though…

Final Audio is very keen on the fact that it’s entirely avoided the use of adhesives in the construction of the DX3000CSL. The use of precision screws and ‘O’-rings to ensure everything fits together nicely means the headphones can quite easily be dismantled, serviced and put back together again – and ‘no adhesives’ also means ‘greater sustainability’ and ‘reduced use of chemicals’ too, of course.

• Design score: 5/5

(Image credit: Future)Final Audio DX3000CL review: Value

• Good standard of construction and finish
• Quite extensive specification
• Some sonic blind spots

Big, well-made and great-sounding headphones that use premium materials and stay comfortable for hours at a time seldom come cheap – and in all of these respects the Final Audio are right on the money.

If they could muster a little more sonic vigour in those instances when it’s essential their case would be watertight…

• Value score: 4/5

(Image credit: Future)Should I buy theFinal Audio DX3000CL?

Section

Notes

Score

Features

All necessary features present and correct – and painstaking trouble has been taken over them too

5/5

Sound quality

Fantastic insight, detail and organisation, but could sound a touch more dynamically engaged and engaging

4/5

Design

Elegant, simplistic, clean and understated

5/5

Value

Excellent in most aspects, just a shade off the best-in-class for sonic vigour

4/5

Buy them if...

You value sonic insight
There isn’t a detail in a recording, no matter how tiny, that seems capable of eluding the DX3000CL

You like mildly unusual things
For all that it’s a fully credible brand, it seems that Final Audio is not all that many people’s default choice

You have some premium source equipment
The appearance of a 4.4mm balanced cable termination lets you know these headphones were designed to work with your more upmarket sources of music

Don't buy them if...

Your head is on the wide side
The last thing you need is for your head to seem wider still, but the DX3000CL are among the widest designs around

You particularly value dynamism and drive
The Final Audio do lots of things very well indeed, but they are neither the most dynamic nor the most attack headphones you can buy

You’re a frequency flyer
These headphones don’t come supplied with a case or even a bag - which is a bit of an oversight to be honest

Final Audio DX3000CL review: Also consider

Final DX3000CL

FiiO FT5

Sennheiser HD-660 S2

Price

$599 / £549 / AU$1099

$449 / £429 / AU$799

$599 / £499 / AU$949

Drivers

40mm paper/carbon composite dynamic

90mm planar magnetic (open-back)

38mm (open-back)

Weight

410g

456g

260g

Cable length

2m

1.5m

1.8m

Impedance

37Ω

36Ω nominal

300Ω

Sensitivity

96dB/wm

96dB/mW @1kHz

104dB

Sennheiser HD-660 S2
Want something super-light on your head? These open-backed Sennheisers might be just the ticket. They're a little older, having been unveiled in March 2023, but in the realms of wired audio and your mixing suite that's hardly an issue…
Read our full Sennheiser HD-660S2 review

FiiO FT5
The cable's a half meter shorter than the Final, at 1.5m rather than 2m, but the 90mm planar magnetic drivers are the star of the show – and do note the this is also an open-backed option. If you want faithful neutrality, do go for the Final, but if you want a bit more excitement and oomph, give these an immediate spot on your shortlist.
See our FiiO FT5 review for more

How I tested the Final Audio DX3000CL

• Connected to a number of sources using both terminations
• With many different music storage formats
• With many different genres and styles of music

I connect the Final Audio DX3000CL to my iFi iDSD Diablo 2 headphone amp/DAC using the 4.4mm input – the iFi is connected to an Apple MacBook Pro and to an iPhone 14 Pro. I also connect them to a FiiO M15S digital audio player using the machine’s 4.4mm socket.

To listen to vinyl I connect the headphones to a Naim Uniti Star connected to a Technics SL-1300G – but it only has a 3.5mm headphone socket, so an ugly combination of the 4.4mm jack fitted with its 6.3mm adapter, in turn fitted to a 6.3mm-to-3.5mm adapter, is required.

• First reviewed: January 2026
• Read more about how we test